Bare-toothed russula or Blusher

The cap is 5-15 cm across, hemispherical in young mushrooms, later becoming convex to flat. The color is pinkish gray-brown, brownish pink, brick, darker in young mushrooms and paler in old ones. The surface is covered with noticeable whitish-grayish wartlike scales (remnants of the universal veil), scattered unevenly. In wet weather it is slightly sticky. The cap edge is smooth.

Cap 5-10 cm across, when young convex with an inrolled margin, with age becoming flattened with a slightly depressed center. The cap skin is smooth, slimy-sticky in wet weather, dry and matte in dry weather, peels back 1/3-2/3 of the way to the center, distinctly shorter than the gill edges (the telltale trait — a "toothed fringe" visible from under the skin). Color: flesh-pink, skin-pink, wine-reddish-cream, with an ochre-cream tinge toward the margin, deeper at the center. Old fruiting bodies are creamy ochre-pink and faded.

Gilled hymenophore: the gills are whitish, turning pink over time where damaged, free. The spore print is white.

Gilled hymenophore — the gills are attached or free from the stem, moderately crowded, thin, brittle. Color: pure white to creamy white, with no pink or yellow tinge. Spore print white.

The stem is 6-12 cm tall and 1-2 cm thick, cylindrical, with a distinct bulbous swelling at the base. The color is whitish above, with pink or reddish tints lower down. In the upper part there is a white ring with lengthwise grooves and a pinkish tint. The volva is indistinct: it appears as concentric pinkish-white warts on the swollen base (not as a sac).

Stem 3-7 cm tall, 1.5-3 cm thick, firm, fleshy, cylindrical, with a small cavity in old specimens. Color: white to cream, often with a faint pink or rusty tinge where damaged, with fine browning spots toward the base. Surface smooth with fine lengthwise wrinkles. No ring, no volva — the crucial difference from amanitas.

The flesh is white, slowly (over 1-5 min) turns pink to wine-red when cut; this is the main diagnostic feature of the species. It turns especially pink where slugs or insects have been feeding. In an old mushroom all the flesh in the lower stem is wine-pink. The smell is faint and pleasantly mushroomy.

Flesh firm, brittle, white, when damaged slowly takes on a pale pink or cream tinge. Smell faint, pleasant, mushroomy-fruity, taste mild, sweetish and nutty (the tongue test confirms it — no burning at all).

Faint and pleasantly mushroomy, with no distinctive notes. In old mushrooms, with a slight winey note.

Faint, pleasant, fruity-mushroomy, neutral.